Hah, is fine. No I didn't feel "cool." I'm just the kind of weirdo that was obsessed with guns from a technical point of view as a kid. Think of me more as the kid just slightly on the spectrum who collected data on everything firearm related and then wrote mods for games like rogue spear that tried to adhere to the data. I didn't shoot more than a .22 rifle or 16 and 12 gauge shotguns until my 20s. This was one of the factoids I still have floating around up there.
Now in my 40s, I still haven't owned a gun personally, but have been to the range many times with friends (I buy more ammo than I shoot and drinks after). Heck, a few weeks ago I got to put a hundred rounds or so through a friend's suppressed FN P90 (a very surreal experience), a very nice .223, and pistols in 4 calibers (.22 and 9mm with suppressors, .45, and .357).
And is expensive as fuck. As is the downgrade, .40 cal.
Maybe it's changed since I last had to purchase any, but it was twice as expensive as .45 bullets, and the guns always seemed subpar to other calibers anyway.
It's projectile weight. The common sizes of 9x19mm ammunition (what we usually mean when we say 9mm), are 115 grain, 124 grain, and 147 grain. NATO standard is 124, but most people shoot 115 at the range because it has less weight and it cheaper.
Lighter projectiles, all else being equal, will have higher muzzle velocities, but will also slow down more quickly and are more prone to wind shift.
We occasionally get engineering diagrams from clients in the US and they're always going on about screws that are 2/3 of an inch long. It's not just that you're not using metric you're using a weird fraction and not a decimal.
It's super confusing when you get into high precision stuff because then they start going on about 128th of an inch. Just tell me how big you want it, stop telling me what fraction of a different measurement it is. Surely there is something below inch that you could use. I still wouldn't know what you were talking about, but at least it would look less stupid when you wrote it down.
The US is the only country that uses non-metric units when doing anything industrial though. I might buy a pint of milk but I'm not going to measure in anything but metres and centimetres.
This is fair. I see no reason to drop feet and inches for day to day use but I'd consider it scandalous if I saw an astronomer using anything but a meter
Canadian engineer here. Although we use the metric system in principle, in reality we use feet and inches for everything. There are lots of benefits to using base 12 for measurements.
The number 12 has six factors, which are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. It is the smallest number to have six factors, the largest number to have at least half of the numbers below it as divisors, and is only slightly larger than 10. (The numbers 18 and 20 also have six factors but are much larger.) Ten, in contrast, only has four factors, which are 1, 2, 5, and 10.
I get the Europeans hate it though because only the people who live near Chernobyl can count to 12 on their fingers.
The thing is, we just use whole numbers. If you get under 1, then you move down by one SI prefix et voilà, you have whole numbers again
I've never thought of counting on fingers as a good reason for using it for units. But since our numeric system is base 10 (likely because of having 10 fingers indeed), it's easier to have our unit systems as base 10 too. If we all learned to think in base 12 from ground up, having base 12 units would make a lot more sense too
Btw you can count to 12 on your fingers with one hand. Starting from the end of the index finger tap each segment of the "remaining" four fingers with your thumb.
I heard someone claim that's how Babylonians invented and used the base 12 system in the first place.
The thing is that outside of North America people aren't terrified to death of decimals. We actually use them and find the process simple. So those factors of yours are completely irrelevant to us.
Sounds like your terrified of duodecimals. Base 12 number systems are better at somethings than base 10 and a number of mathematicians believe it's a superior number system all round and easier to teach to young people. And metric would work equally well in theory with either base 10 or base 12.
If you look at your hand when it is wide open and palm up you can use the tip of your thumb to touch any of the 12 (four fingers each with three) sections of your fingers. Counting in 12 might be very intuitive for early humans - or might not. Who knows.
The Americans could've changed to the metric system if they could afford it. However, changing a country's systems of measurement is a mammoth project of enormous complexity and cost, so I guess no politician want to make space for that in the budget when there are other things to take care of.
... and then hang him anyways after the next Nuremberg trials.
Don't be silly, you lot are going to gold plate his pension and that of his family for decades to come. LOL next Nuremberg trials. Who are you kidding?
As a non American who lives in the country that was responsible for the Holocaust and is now I think second biggest donor of the Zionist project (second after the US), I'm not too sure people learn from history. "Never again" has always been a lie
The US is going to protect him and his family for generations. Nobody... and I mean nobody, is going to challenge that. There'll be no trials, there'll be no reparations, there'll be no apologies, there certainly won't be any hangings. The best we can hope for is a gradual backing down of the extreme "fuck everyone" stance the US is in right now.
We are not going to go WWII on the US, if that is what you are suggesting. Who would even do that? Russia and China are laughing their asses off about what is happening in the US right now. They never had it better, since the US voluntarily dropped its hegemony and basically joined their side.
Europe wouldn't even if it could (which it obviously can't).
The US can't be saved by anyone but their own people. But Americans so far seem to be very easy to bully into submission and accept their country turning fascist.
People just don't really care enough to. And we already use the metric system in science, engineering, medicine, aerospace, military, and any science class in high school or higher. So what if our road signs and cookbooks are in imperial units.
Recipes being imperial is the dumbest thing ever and I always convert mine. "Two cups and one tablespoon flour" statements dreamed up by the utterly deranged. I will defend feet/inches though for very specific cases where you may be dividing something into thirds like sometimes with woodworking
I love love love that we use ounces for both weight and volume 🤩 I love love love that we use volume for measuring things like sour cream in recipes but weight in the store! America number 1!!! 🇨🇱
I use the metric system for almost all of my projects. I've never seen a 3d printer that used the english system and after a decade of use I really hate the english system.
94 Comments
gustofwind@lemmy.world · 118 pts · 203d
You’ve unlocked: the number 10
FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 91 pts · 203d
Bro 10mm rounds exist
Botzo@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 202d
.40 S&W and 10mm auto are both 10mm rounds!
LadyMeow@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 23 pts · 202d
I don’t trust you, stranger number man! And the above… well that just proves there’s a conspiracy!
zedgeist@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 202d
Brah, does stranger danger apply to the metric system??
LadyMeow@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 19 pts · 202d
Oh my, yes!
ohulancutash@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 202d
B’aint nothin stranger than an american, if that helps.
P00ptart@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 202d
Yeah but they're not interchangeable.
selokichtli@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 202d
I wonder, did you feel like "cool" writing this comment? It's an honest question. Sorry in advance if it sounds like a jerk question.
Botzo@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 202d
Hah, is fine. No I didn't feel "cool." I'm just the kind of weirdo that was obsessed with guns from a technical point of view as a kid. Think of me more as the kid just slightly on the spectrum who collected data on everything firearm related and then wrote mods for games like rogue spear that tried to adhere to the data. I didn't shoot more than a .22 rifle or 16 and 12 gauge shotguns until my 20s. This was one of the factoids I still have floating around up there.
Now in my 40s, I still haven't owned a gun personally, but have been to the range many times with friends (I buy more ammo than I shoot and drinks after). Heck, a few weeks ago I got to put a hundred rounds or so through a friend's suppressed FN P90 (a very surreal experience), a very nice .223, and pistols in 4 calibers (.22 and 9mm with suppressors, .45, and .357).
selokichtli@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 202d
Thank you for answering respectfully. Also, for the FN P90... Jesus.
doingthestuff@lemy.lol · 14 pts · 202d
Here's the funny thing. A 9mm is closer to a cm. The rim is 9.96mm.
marcos@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 202d
Can US people imagine their size in a whim?
P00ptart@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 202d
Probably not. It's a fairly rare round outside of fallout.
slappyfuck@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 202d
We can’t imagine 9mm on a whim either.
RyanDownyJr@lemmy.world · 47 pts · 203d
"Anything but the metric system"... Well kinda
Penguin_1024@piefed.zip · 16 pts · 203d
The metric system, but with extra steps.
P00ptart@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 202d
The metric system but with warthogs, refrigerators and football fields. That's .64 football fields, or .48 decawarthogs.
EtherWhack@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 202d
One AAA battery
Harvey656@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 202d
Centimeters are on the American ruler...
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org · 34 pts · 202d
We also put inches on ours, yet not a single soul has ever used that side. I think it's only to constantly remind us we are superior ;)
HK65@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 202d
Screens are measured in inches
PlexSheep@infosec.pub · 3 pts · 202d
Is Zoll and Inch the same thing?
NessD@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 202d
Yes.
Harvey656@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 202d
cries in American inferiority
And009@lemmynsfw.com · 2 pts · 202d
Were taught to think in inches at fashion design school.
yata@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 202d
Most people by far don't attend fashion design school.
SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 202d
Yeah Stormy said it was only a centimeter
nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 202d
The only thing on a real American ruler is red white and blue .
Benaaasaaas@group.lt · 12 pts · 202d
I thought he is orange
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social · 3 pts · 202d
His preferred title is typically translated as "leader" not "ruler" that's got monarchist elements that they can't quite make stick yet
fatalicus@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 202d
You can't rule a country off a cliff, only lead.
Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works · 22 pts · 202d
I always thought it was cheeky that a lot of pistols in Fallout take 10mm ammo.
higgsboson@dubvee.org · 10 pts · 202d
10mm ammo is a real thing, tho
Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 202d
Ah, good to know.
NannerBanner@literature.cafe · 2 pts · 201d
And is expensive as fuck. As is the downgrade, .40 cal.
Maybe it's changed since I last had to purchase any, but it was twice as expensive as .45 bullets, and the guns always seemed subpar to other calibers anyway.
ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 202d
Tbf 10mm Auto is a real caliber (that the FBI tried to use but "it hurted their wrists" so .40SW was invented.)
https://www.ammunitiondepot.com/3212-magtech-10mm-180-gr-fmj.html
Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk · 6 pts · 202d
SW stands for Soft Wankers.
ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 202d
LOL it might as well since their weak ass wrists couldn't take it!
(For those who are wondering it's of course actually "Smith & Wesson.")
Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 202d
Ah, yes, that also makes sense.
Agent641@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 201d
Sore wrists
UnspecificGravity@piefed.social · 19 pts · 202d
Its about 40 caliber.
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 202d
How many grain?
UnspecificGravity@piefed.social · 6 pts · 202d
Width, not length.
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 202d
volume? (i thought grain was volume, sort-of)
chiliedogg@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 202d
It's projectile weight. The common sizes of 9x19mm ammunition (what we usually mean when we say 9mm), are 115 grain, 124 grain, and 147 grain. NATO standard is 124, but most people shoot 115 at the range because it has less weight and it cheaper.
Lighter projectiles, all else being equal, will have higher muzzle velocities, but will also slow down more quickly and are more prone to wind shift.
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 202d
Mass, like a church? Like like the measures on the façade of the Torre Civica in Assisi?
/s, #anything but metric
WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 202d
A grain is just an old system of weight. 1 grain is about 64 mg. I was tested on grain based dosages in school but never saw them used in real life.
Legisign@europe.pub · 16 pts · 202d
I wonder, when they get a grown-up president again, will they finally also begin to move to the 21st century?
jali67@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 202d
You’re being way too optimistic
ohulancutash@feddit.uk · 5 pts · 202d
Again???
HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 15 pts · 202d
As an American mechanical engineer, i do more unit conversions between metric and standard/ uscs than many people do in a lifetime
Hell just today I designed a custom spring in both as i need it asap and have to settle for the inch
echodot@feddit.uk · 18 pts · 202d
We occasionally get engineering diagrams from clients in the US and they're always going on about screws that are 2/3 of an inch long. It's not just that you're not using metric you're using a weird fraction and not a decimal.
It's super confusing when you get into high precision stuff because then they start going on about 128th of an inch. Just tell me how big you want it, stop telling me what fraction of a different measurement it is. Surely there is something below inch that you could use. I still wouldn't know what you were talking about, but at least it would look less stupid when you wrote it down.
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org · 2 pts · 202d
Isn't the UK just as bad? You have a zoo of units over there. Stone, miles, pints, etc.
echodot@feddit.uk · 10 pts · 202d
The US is the only country that uses non-metric units when doing anything industrial though. I might buy a pint of milk but I'm not going to measure in anything but metres and centimetres.
Aljernon@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 201d
This is fair. I see no reason to drop feet and inches for day to day use but I'd consider it scandalous if I saw an astronomer using anything but a meter
1stQ@feddit.org · 1 pts · 202d
Centiinch? Millifoot?
alsimoneau@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 202d
A thou is a milliinch
HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 202d
Every company ive ever worked for has been metric. All American companies. But i do machines and instruments.
I deal with standard / uscs units because suppliers still do
Zamboni_Driver@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 202d
Canadian engineer here. Although we use the metric system in principle, in reality we use feet and inches for everything. There are lots of benefits to using base 12 for measurements.
The number 12 has six factors, which are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. It is the smallest number to have six factors, the largest number to have at least half of the numbers below it as divisors, and is only slightly larger than 10. (The numbers 18 and 20 also have six factors but are much larger.) Ten, in contrast, only has four factors, which are 1, 2, 5, and 10.
I get the Europeans hate it though because only the people who live near Chernobyl can count to 12 on their fingers.
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 7 pts · 202d
The thing is, we just use whole numbers. If you get under 1, then you move down by one SI prefix et voilà, you have whole numbers again
I've never thought of counting on fingers as a good reason for using it for units. But since our numeric system is base 10 (likely because of having 10 fingers indeed), it's easier to have our unit systems as base 10 too. If we all learned to think in base 12 from ground up, having base 12 units would make a lot more sense too
froh42@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 202d
Btw you can count to 12 on your fingers with one hand. Starting from the end of the index finger tap each segment of the "remaining" four fingers with your thumb.
I heard someone claim that's how Babylonians invented and used the base 12 system in the first place.
yata@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 202d
The thing is that outside of North America people aren't terrified to death of decimals. We actually use them and find the process simple. So those factors of yours are completely irrelevant to us.
Aljernon@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 201d
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duodecimal
Sounds like your terrified of duodecimals. Base 12 number systems are better at somethings than base 10 and a number of mathematicians believe it's a superior number system all round and easier to teach to young people. And metric would work equally well in theory with either base 10 or base 12.
tomenzgg@midwest.social · 4 pts · 202d
I know it'll never happen but I'm still camp duodecimal, all the way.
GamingChairModel@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 202d
12 is better than 10, I'll give you that. But 100 is better than 144, and 1000 is way better than 1728.
And that doesn't even get to 0.1 versus 1/12, or 0.01 versus 1/144.
So 12 might be a better standalone number, but it's a terrible base to work in.
definitemaybe@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 201d
But 144 is better than 100, for the exact same reason that 12 is better than 10?
There's a reason measured angles go to 360ths, then subdivided by 60 or even by 60 again.
100 is as terrible a base as 10, and you run into it all the time if you're designing something in metric; you can't divide by 3 evenly.
Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 202d
If you look at your hand when it is wide open and palm up you can use the tip of your thumb to touch any of the 12 (four fingers each with three) sections of your fingers. Counting in 12 might be very intuitive for early humans - or might not. Who knows.
Sir_Premiumhengst@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 202d
Sure, but does my 5/32" drill hit go left or right of the 7/64" on my drill bit sorting block?...
Zamboni_Driver@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 202d
5/32 is 10/64, maybe you can figure it out from there.
BananaIsABerry@lemmy.zip · 15 pts · 202d
Why don't they just round that guy's votes up to 60?
cmhe@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 202d
CheesyFox@lemmy.sdf.org · 7 pts · 202d
your deleted comment has the same comedic effect as the bethesda's environmental storytelling skeletons
pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 202d
i should delete this reply.
mastertigurius@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 203d
The Americans could've changed to the metric system if they could afford it. However, changing a country's systems of measurement is a mammoth project of enormous complexity and cost, so I guess no politician want to make space for that in the budget when there are other things to take care of.
mst@discuss.tchncs.de · 37 pts · 202d
Maybe people will forget about the epstein files if he tries changing to metric
MotoAsh@piefed.social · 22 pts · 202d
Genuinely, that would be the funniest reason... Maybe we should be inundating Trump with recommendations like this to 'fix' his approval ratings.
... and then hang him anyways after the next Nuremberg trials.
mannycalavera@feddit.uk · 7 pts · 202d
Don't be silly, you lot are going to gold plate his pension and that of his family for decades to come. LOL next Nuremberg trials. Who are you kidding?
MotoAsh@piefed.social · -1 pts · 202d
So you're saying the rest of the world is just going to roll over and let the Holocaust 2.0 happen?
Your lack of faith in everyone non-American is disturbing...
lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 202d
As a non American who lives in the country that was responsible for the Holocaust and is now I think second biggest donor of the Zionist project (second after the US), I'm not too sure people learn from history. "Never again" has always been a lie
MotoAsh@piefed.social · 3 pts · 202d
It has always been a lie for those who do not view human rights as inalienable rights.
Conservatives around the world are simply proving that they are absolute trash.
mannycalavera@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 202d
If I'm honest, yes.
The US is going to protect him and his family for generations. Nobody... and I mean nobody, is going to challenge that. There'll be no trials, there'll be no reparations, there'll be no apologies, there certainly won't be any hangings. The best we can hope for is a gradual backing down of the extreme "fuck everyone" stance the US is in right now.
What have you seen to suggest otherwise?
(Nice star wars reference btw)
yata@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 202d
We are not going to go WWII on the US, if that is what you are suggesting. Who would even do that? Russia and China are laughing their asses off about what is happening in the US right now. They never had it better, since the US voluntarily dropped its hegemony and basically joined their side.
Europe wouldn't even if it could (which it obviously can't).
The US can't be saved by anyone but their own people. But Americans so far seem to be very easy to bully into submission and accept their country turning fascist.
queermunist@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 202d
Europe certainly will.
cattywampas@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 202d
People just don't really care enough to. And we already use the metric system in science, engineering, medicine, aerospace, military, and any science class in high school or higher. So what if our road signs and cookbooks are in imperial units.
RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com · 2 pts · 202d
when you put it like that we're pretty much on par with the UK's adoption of metric
ohulancutash@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 202d
UK merchants must list their prices in metric
ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip · -1 pts · 202d
Recipes being imperial is the dumbest thing ever and I always convert mine. "Two cups and one tablespoon flour" statements dreamed up by the utterly deranged. I will defend feet/inches though for very specific cases where you may be dividing something into thirds like sometimes with woodworking
chunes@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 201d
Rest of the world when people have different cultures: >:(
speckofrust@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 202d
A system of measurement in which something like 15/16 of an inch is seen as a sensible way to measure a small distance. Not much else to say.
JackbyDev@programming.dev · 2 pts · 201d
I love love love that we use ounces for both weight and volume 🤩 I love love love that we use volume for measuring things like sour cream in recipes but weight in the store! America number 1!!! 🇨🇱
Aljernon@lemmy.today · 8 pts · 201d
DancingBear@midwest.social · 3 pts · 201d
Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 201d
I use the metric system for almost all of my projects. I've never seen a 3d printer that used the english system and after a decade of use I really hate the english system.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 202d
clawd@lemmings.world · -7 pts · 201d
thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 201d
???
Anarki_@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 201d
It's a clanker.